WHO AM I?
Where do we come from? Where is our home? Where are we going? Who Am I? Water and the Echoes of Creation is an interdisciplinary performance about identity, notions of home, migration and memory using movement, spoken word, film and music. Through a myriad of ways, the piece confronts the landscape of our physical and metaphysical reality as well as the mythical nuances of our past. Developed in collaboration with sound artist, Tunde Jegede and performed by Sunara Begum.
Who Am I is an interdisciplinary performance piece about identity, notions of home, migration and memory with an exclusive film screening of WATER. Shot in the depths of the waters, a protagonist traverses subaquatic spaces thriving only at a level of foundational life; breath, skin, rope, fabric and uncontrolled water. Its nonlinear narrative examines how the conscious absorbs and processes hostilities of society and environment into the unconscious. The multiple camera’s scrutiny of the protagonist hints at this, its hesitance and confusion suggesting that perhaps these surroundings actually form a dystopia of sorts. With questions of identity often linked to where one considers ‘home’ perhaps such atopias – that of space, sky, water, and fissures deep beneath the earth – can be compromises for those denied the chance to ever feel they have one.
Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi – Venice, Italy
V&A (Victoria & Albert) Museum – London, England
NEW WORLDS
New Worlds: Visions of a Traveller is a musical theatre show that follows the journey of two legendary travellers, from two very different epochs of history; DH Lawrence in Mexico and Ibn Battuta in Medieval Africa. They were both unique in their alternative perspectives and discourses and the way they challenged the mainstream historical interpretation of travel, discovery and connections between ‘old’ and ‘new’ civilisations. Weaving the narrative of these two travellers with multimedia visuals, the show is a meeting of worlds. It is a journey through time from the Pre-Columbian music of South America to the medieval Malian Royal Court music of the griots and the kora.
Tunde Jegede and Rafael Guel are two of the most established artists in their distinct traditions and together they combine to find a new, common musical language of transcendence. Tunde Jegede is a world-renowned composer, renaissance man, kora player and multi-instrumentalist who has brought his particular concept of African Classical Music to a wide international audience. His music represents an innovative synthesis of African and Western art-forms. His reflective and meditative music draws us into a bygone era. Rafael Guel is a celebrated Mexican artist and multi-instrumentalist who plays an array of traditional flutes, vihuela (baroque guitar) and percussion. His music carries the essence of the Pre-Columbian musical heartbeat. Sunara Begum brings her unique visual language with live performance, infusing archival imagery, painting, text and poetry to express a timeless narrative.
Norden Farm – Maidenhead, England
Gulbenkian Theatre – Canterbury, England
The Poly – Cornwall, England
Morrab Library – Cornwall, England
St. Agnes Church – Isle of Wight, England
St Stephen Walbrook – London, England
Compton Parish Rooms – Chichester, England
Norwich Arts Centre – Norwich, England
The Forge – Basingstoke, England
ẸRÍ
ẸRÍ (Yoruba for ‘testimony’) is a tale of home and heritage, it weaves together stories that span both Britain and Nigeria to create a surreal world of myth and memory to tell the story of migration int he modern world. To create this very personal work, Jegede joins forces with the multimedia visual artist, Sunara Begum to bring together a theatrical rendition of their combined journeys as seekers of truth within the metropolis of their fragile existence.
ẸRÍ is an intimate and intricate coming together of music, movement and text in a tale of what it means to be displaced in the modern world. Showcasing at Ventnor Fringe Festival for the first time, this is a special landmark performance that will go on to tour Europe, India and Africa in 2019. Shifting between classical and contemporary music, Jegede conjures up sound worlds of a barren wasteland devoid of human essence. ẸRÍ takes place where humanity stands in wonder and disarray, on the border between East and West, past and present, mythology and modernity. A piece that takes place in the spirit world of antiquity.
Guest Projects – London, England
Parkside – Isle of Wight, England
Ventnor Fringe – Isle of Wight, England
GEKKA, UNDER THE MOON
GEKKA, Under The Moon is inspired by a 16th century Japanese Sumie painting ‘Gekka Shourin Zu’ depicting the offshore pine forest under the moon. A myriad of dark and light shades created by the moon and the morning fog envelops the landscape. In this flux a tale unfolds.
Butoh is a form of Japanese avant-garde dance. It emerged from the post war chaos in Japan after WW2 when the country grappled with the clash between new Western technology and traditional Japanese values. Butoh was called ‘the dance of darkness’. Self-identity was radically explored with visceral and complex expression. Butoh became a new form of expression, neither an imitation of Western culture nor a traditional Japanese cultural practice.
Hastings Museum & Art Gallery – Hastings, England